APPP Working Paper No. 27. Understanding organisational performance in the City of Kampala: Implementation of local government development projects (2003-10)
Abstract
This study of Kampala City Council found that there is a dysfunctional pre-occupation in the Ugandan local development planning system with managerialism and ‘process’ at the expense of public ‘outputs’. A culture of ‘planning is doing’ permeates the [decentralised] centrally controlled local government system. Donor conditions – biased toward ‘good governance’ and technocratic solutions – drive the development and funding agenda. There is a fundamental contradiction between what the formal system wants and what the community wants. The formal system demands bureaucratic managerial and accountability processes combined with imposed planning and a participation-obsessed local government system. The community wants to solve local development problems, yet has little power to influence and define projects according to their local needs – despite the genuine interest of local government officials in providing public goods and services for their communities.
Citation
Stelman, U.M. APPP Working Paper No. 27. Understanding organisational performancein the City of Kampala: Implementation of local government development projects (2003-10). Overseas Development Institute, London, UK (2012) 35 pp.
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